266 RELATION OP FORESTS TO THE 



finish by transforming themselves into vast bogs, which present the 

 appearance of great inundated plains, whose surface might be covered 

 with trees brought along by the waters. These immense stagnant 

 pools, these seas of mud, still fui-nish a soil sufficiently firm for a 

 species of cypress, and of broom which grow there ; they offer the 

 only ground of support for the foot of the animals that wander in 

 these aquatic solitudes, — bears, wild cats, wolves. The most cele- 

 brated of these swamps is the Great Dismal, which Mr Lyell has 

 described in his interesting journey in the United States, and which 

 extends between the towns of Norfolk, Virginia, and Weldon, North 

 Carolina." 



In the Lower Mississippi we have, according to the rain-charts, a 

 rainfall of 56, 60, and 64 inches per annum ; in Arkansas, a rainfall 

 of 42, 44, and 50 ; in Norfolk, Virginia, 44 ; in North Carolina, 44, 

 48, and 52. 



M. Marny continues, — " Upon the lower levels of the Alleghany 

 Mountains, the rhododendron and the kalmia display their elegant 

 flowers. From stage to stage the vegetation is modified ; and to 

 forests of oak ssucceed the resinous pines, with which are associated 

 magnolias, poplars, and different species of nyssa. 



" The forests of the Alleghanies belong to one of four forest zones 

 which embrace North America; they extend over the south-west 

 coast as far as to the south of the bay of Chesapeake. They chiefly 

 contain pines, firs, cedars, and cypresses." 



In this district we have a rainfall of 36, 40, and 44 inches. 



"The second zone, which corresponds with the region of magnolias, 

 catalpas, tulip-trees, stretches over the Floridas and Louisiana ; it is 

 characterised in several parts by forests of cedars, known under the 

 name of cedar-swamps. In Louisiana the rather stunted stems of the 

 wax-myrtle are found among the rhododendrons. 



" In Florida and Carolina are forests called pine-harrens composed 

 of gigantic pines, reaching a height of more than 50 metres, and 

 rivalling those which clothe the opposite coast of the American 

 continent. These pine-harrens comprise a broad band several hundred 

 miles in length. Behind these forests of coniferse, which form the 

 second forest line, one encounters on disembarking upon these shores 

 — the first being composed of graceful palms — come other forests not 

 less dense, but composed of a thousand kinds of wood. 'There,* 

 writes M. F. de Castelnau, * the magnolia exhibits with profusion its 



